forme

plural formes

1. obsoleteObsolete form of form.

   And first, although there were more things in nature then words which did expresse them, yet even in these mute and silent discourses, to expresse complexed significations, they took a liberty to compound and piece together creatures of allowable formes unto mixtures inexistent […]

   1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC

2. alternativemediaAlternative form of form (“type etc. secured in a chase”).

   1994, Jay L. Halio, Introduction, Jay L. Halio (editor), William Shakespeare, The First Quarto of King Lear, page 21, Q2 was printed in twenty-two formes.

   2 more examples

   1978, David A. Bloestein, Introduction, John Marston, David A. Bloestein (editor), Parasitaster: Or, The Fawn, page 47, Both these formes, with running titles intact, were retained to print sheet D of Q2.

   In casting off, the printing house would judge the length of a manuscript to determine both how many sheets would be needed, and what the divisions were between one forme and another. (A forme is one side of a sheet: four quarto pages or two folio pages.) Because formes do not have many consecutive pages, estimates would be further broken down by page. If a quarto forme includes a putative page one, for instance, that side of the sheet would also include pages four, five, and eight.

   2011, Eugene Giddens, How to Read a Shakespearean Play Text, page 41